“A time to remain in silence”: that’s how the Dutch bishops define the time of Lent, in their pastoral letter issued on Ash Wednesday. “A time to remain in silence on the occasion of the big and small choices we continually make; a period of reflection and consciousness, a time in which to occupy ourselves with doing or leaving things alone”. “It is neither a contest nor a religious diet”, says the pastoral letter. “Many people during Lent especially think of the least of humankind; they renounce eating and drinking or other habits”. But what’s important is to “make space for ourselves, space for others and especially space for God, to give and to renounce in order to receive. Man’s freedom of choice always finds space within the context of good and evil, sin and grace. Making choices represents the continuous and profound response of our being children of God and of our continuous conversion to Him”. “Conversion is therefore a central concept for the Christian faith and is also central in the period of Lent, the period of grace in which God invites us to turn to him again. “Conversion requires first of all that we enrich our relation with God, choose Him in freedom, and it also requires rethinking our life and the choices we make in life. In the period of Lent we can do so concretely through conscious choices. This does not make Lent an arid period. On the contrary! Conversion means living in the spirit of God”.
